Distressed investors mull challenges posed by Chinese law

Fund managers at the AsianInvestorFinanceAsia Distressed and Troubled Asset Investing Summit held in Tokyo last week were thinking about their rights. More specifically, had their legal trading rights improved in Asia during the past 10 years, and what can they do about it

Their interrogator was FinanceAsia editor Lara Wozniak, and her subjects' attention alighted primarily on China. The panel discussed what might emerge in the way of distress from the Rmb10 trillion $1.5 trillion of recent fresh lending in the country.

If it develops in the same way as the policy-driven lending of the 1990s, then 25% of that went non-performing, said Benjamin Fanger,...